Digital video camcorders and my MRCGP consultation tapes

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2002. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

I am planning on finishing my MRCGP, which I started as a registrar, before I run out of time. The module left is videoing, which like others I hate and have been putting off. I hate the fact that the tape always ran out at the wrong time, the sound was dreadful and that the editing from camera to video was a boringly dull process where the end result looked like it was snowing in my consultations due to image degradation. Although it wouldn’t improve my consulting skills, I wondered if applying my love of IT and gadgetry to the problem could at least enthuse me into doing it. I also have two small children and thought it would be a good idea to have a video camera I could take home.

My previous experience of cameras has been limited to VHS and 8mm formats. I had however been seeing in the computer press a lot of fuss about Digital Video or DV, and the fact that it could be edited on a computer, and the quality of the images. At its simplest a DV camcorder is just like any other camcorder in that it will record onto a tape. Models vary from £400-£1,500. All the usual features are found, including auto-focus, an LCD screen to view images and a variety of ports that will allow you to connect the camera up to TVs, videos etc. DV tapes are quite small and 90 minutes’ recording time is usual using long-play modes, which don’t degrade image quality because the information is stored digitally. The size of the tape also gives the benefit of the camera being reasonably small.

The image quality of DV is better than SVHS or Hi-8. The really special feature is that images on the camera can easily be transferred to a computer via a FireWire card. This is essentially a port that is similar to a USB port but can transfer data at much faster rates, thus being ideal for multimedia applications. Don’t worry if you don’t have one - I didn’t. My camcorder came with one and some video editing software, and they are fairly cheap to buy. Installing the card was easy: all I had to do was open the case of the computer and insert it into a spare slot, and when I turned on the machine the card was auto-detected and was ready to go.

Included with more recent versions of Windows is Microsoft Movie Maker, a free program, which you can also download, that is all you need for basic video editing. With your camera connected to the computer you can use Movie Maker to control the camera and view your movie as required. You can record either your whole tape or selected portions onto your hard disk. You have to decide at what quality you are going to record to disk. DV is very high quality but takes up an amazing amount of hard disk space. To maintain best quality, especially if you want to record your finished results back onto DV tape, it is best to stay at this quality; however if you are creating small movies for displaying on computer screens, or for saving on websites or to email to friends, you can elect to record to hard disk at a much more compressed and therefore efficient rate. However, quality will be lost and you cannot go back.

The Movie Maker software works on a storyboard system, where the transferred tapes are split into scenes. You can then select scenes and place them in whatever order you choose, with special effects if needed. For my consultation video it becomes easy to watch my tape on my computer, record any worthy consultations to hard disk and then, when I have enough, transfer the whole video back onto the camcorder, where it can be transferred onto a VHS tape.

There are several other software packages available that do the same thing, only with more features. The main disadvantage of Movie Maker is that Microsoft only let you save films in their format. Other packages allow you to save in MPEG format or even create video discs which can be played on most DVD players.

I obtained on loan from a local shop, and have subsequently bought, an ex-demo Canon DV450i which can still be purchased for around £500, having just been superseded by a newer model. This is an all-singing, all-dancing model that will do everything and even has a memory card in it that can record still images, which can then also be transferred onto computer. The thing to check when buying a DV camcorder is whether the DV connection is bi-directional, as some cheaper cameras only let you transfer data from the camera to computer - the other way is disabled. This is done because under EU law they count as video recorders and are subject to more tax; however it is worth paying the extra, as it is convenient to store your finished videos on tape as they are cheap, and you can use the camcorder as a mobile video player or transfer device to other media. If you have a one-way camera or find a cheap deal, it might be worth checking the internet, as for some cameras you can find ways of bypassing the block.